Unexpected occurences in the middle of Nowhere
by Teyrn Aberforth Cousland
Summary: A mysterious traveller and her child come across a farm near the Imperial border.


The autumn chill had set down on those sylvan lands and made those two travelers worried. They needed to get out of here as fast as possible before winter extended it's icy reach over this area. What they were running from or why was not something anyone could discern;but they tried to all the same. One was a woman in her early thirties; the other was an androgynous child, presumably hers."Look over there mother. It's a house!" said the child pointing at a large wooden house near a copse of trees. "Hmm. Do you think they'll offer us shelter?" said the woman. "If not then I suppose we'll just have to take it for ourselves!" replied the child gleefully.

It was a large house and there was a barn standing next to it, lending to the credence that the resident's were farmers. By the time they reached the distant cottage an hour had passed and night was soon to usurp the sun's dominion. She knocked on the door twice and after a few moment's a teenage girl opened it. She sized them with her gaze and it proved clear that this peasant didn't expect them to trust the laws of home and hearth.

"What do you want?"demanded this local. "May we have a bed for the night? Not too much to ask is it?"she asked the young girl. "Mother some people want to stay over tonight!" the girl cried out. Another woman came to the door after a few minutes. "My husband says you are welcome for the night. Please come in." The traveler and the child walked in, ignoring the hostility on the teenager's face. "Please sit at the table. We were just about to dine. I'll set plates for you" said the older woman.

The traveler and her young companion set down their bearings and entered the modest dining room and there sat a man, a few year's older than his wife going by the color of his hair and the wrinkle's creasing his forehead. "Welcome! Our home is humble, but we will not deny tired wanderer's rest for a night." They took their seat's and were quickly joined by his daughter.

"Hello. I'm Lefeil, the woman you met at the door is my wife Angine and this is our daughter Marielle. What brings you to these parts? It's hardly the most attractive of lands is it?" The traveler replied "We're just passing here on our way to the Imperial border. Which makes me ask; why do you live so close to it when you know that this is a volatile, disputed area?" "Us? Well my grandparents settled here when this was still Imperial land. When the war ended and the Kingdom claimed it's territory our family voluntarily chose not to budge from this spot regardless of which country ruled it." "Not so patriotic are we huh?" "No I guess not" he laughed. "So what's your business in the Empire anyway?" "I merely seek to ply a better trade there, that's all" the traveler answered back.

Marielle chimed in at this point "May we inquire as to what it is you do, wanderer?" Turning to Lefeil she lashed out at the two companions "Can't you see how suspicious this is Father? She's still not said her name or that of her child!" Angine entered the room at this point carrying a pot of some kind of stew and plate of bread. She set them down and proceeded to reprimand her daughter. "Marielle! Behave with the guests! I'm not having this kind of attitude underneath our roof!" The girl, subdued by her mother's no-nonsense attitude clenched her teeth and remained silent. The mother took a seat and passed over the stew pot to the two wanderers. "Please eat. Its lamb stew along with some herbed bread as an accompaniment." The traveler nodded and helped herself. She served the child sitting next to her some as well. "Thank you for your hospitality. I think this is enough for the two of us. Please enjoy your food."she told her host. "Oh but that won't do! You are guests and we must make sure that you are comfortable." continued Angine. "You need not worry madam for we already are." the traveler assured her. "As you wish."

They ate in an awkward silence until Marielle broke it. "Mother I'm finished". "Very well Mari. Go make your bed." Angine turned her face to her guest's. "I have made a special drink for you. It's liquor with a local flavor. Please try it out." The traveler tried to politely reject her offer."I thank you for your generosity but I am tired after this long day's journey. Also I'm not one to indulge in drink all that often." Angine was not deterred."But it's something you must taste before you reach the Empire. I insist." Angine went to the kitchen and her husband joined her.

Now alone she used sign language to communicate with the child. "_Am I the only one who finds her desire to make us have that drink suspicious?" _she signaled with her fingers. _"I don't trust these people. Maybe we should leave." _the kid signed back. Angine and Lefeil returned at that moment, with two beer jugs in hand. They settled the drinks down on the table, in front of the mother-child pair. "Your child could give it a try as well" said Angine. "I can't allow such a young child to taste this. What is the meaning of this Angine?"

Marielle joined them now, holding an exquisite staff fashioned of rare ebony gilded with arcane rune's that emitted a radiance the color of moonlight. and said "We should be asking you this question. I rummaged through your sack and found this wizard's staff. So apostate, would you like to surrender yourself to the Chantry or die here?"the last words coming out as a question and a scream.

At that moment Lefeil rushed towards her and tried to grab her, but she deftly swirled around and kicked him in the crotch. Angine pulled out a knife and moved towards her but the rogue mage held out her hand and a wave of force blasted her against the wall. Marielle quivered in the corner,clutching the staff with a fierce desperation, though she knew it would not lend her a hand in this destructive affair. The spellcaster paced toward the teenager, one hand pointing at Marielle with gleaming blue energies gathering around it with quickness and intensity. "Hand over the staff and you need not die. You are young, and you have a long life ahead of you. Do not squander it recklessly in this foolish endeavor." The girl met the magi's stare and lost herself in the power of her striking violet eyes. Like a puppet she rose up and deposited the magical relic in this rogue's hand. The magi drew the girl in an embrace, laid her hand, still potent with power, against Marielle's chest and blasted a hole through her body, cutting short the young girl's walk on the earthly plane.

Angine and Lefeil cried out in their powerless state at this tragedy that unfolded before them. A now weeping Lefeil rose up from his crumpled position, still wabbling from pain and asked the apostate "Have you no heart? She was a girl in the prime of her youth and you have taken that from us!" He weeped but continued in his saddened state " Maker have mercy on her soul and lend me the strength to kill this fiend! Angine tossed the knife to him and he managed to grab it with ease. However his quest to avenge his cruelly slain child was silenced unceremoniously when a bolt of flame hit him square in the chest and sent him crashing against the wall. The spell did it's work and engulfed him in a matter of second's, leaving him paralyzed to act to defend himself and killing him almost instantly. He screamed and flailed as the sorcerous fire consumed him, dissipating as the last embers of life were dowsed out of his body.

Angine looked on in silent horror as her husband was now nothing more than a charred corpse. The apostate solemnly moved to stand over the wounded Angine,billowing with tear's at her family's destruction and pointed the staff towards her face. "Any last words?" she asked. Angine raised up her head, a look of resignation filling her face. "Might I know who is sending me to the side of Blessed Andraste?" "Very well, I am Morrigan of the Wilds, a name to be engraved forever in history. Remember me in your next life as the guest on whom you tried to commit the vilest of treacheries" she intoned.

A line of electricity burst of her magical staff and hit Angine. Her death was a quick one but not painless for she screamed as the electricity tore through her innards and before wrapping itself around her heart and delivering a final jolt. Morrigan walked around the ruined dining room looking for her companion. She opened a cupboard door and the child climbed out, getting scooped lovingly in it's mother's hand's. "Come, we have a long journey ahead of us. Let's take some horses from the stable and be on our way." Morrigan and her child were now astride two horses and moving away from the farm. Morrigan looked back, raised her staff and in a few seconds the farmhouse was torn down by a fiery inferno. She looked at the mountains in the north, her destination and pulled the reins and charged forward.


End file.
